Karena Walter, The Standard

ST. CATHARINES -- Roseanne Whalen spent a lot of her childhood alone and attaching herself to anyone who paid her attention, her cousin testified Tuesday.

"She just latched onto people and sometimes it wasn't the best people," Julie Collins told a jury in the second-degree murder trial of Whalen.

Whalen, 25, of Fort Erie, is in the third week of a jury trial in Hamilton. She has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the death of her two-year-old daughter Marissa. Whalen's ex-girlfriend Rainbow Hill is serving time for her role in the death of the child, who was killed in the bathroom.

The toddler was killed on July 29, 2011 in her Fort Erie home but her remains weren't discovered until Oct. 16, 2011 in a remote area of Ohsweken, near Brantford.